Yesterday we saw the Verizon iPhone for the first time, after years of rumors and speculation, and many of us were thrilled. Now we have a choice of carriers – AT&T’s stranglehold on the Apple smartphone is over and users in bigger cities might actually have an iPhone that works. However, there is one small detail that we seem to have overlooked as we got caught up in the excitement of the moment.
During the event, an attendee asked about Verizon’s exclusivity deal with Apple for the CDMA iPhone, and the response was, “We have a multi-year, non-exclusive deal.” Could this mean that other CDMA carriers in the U.S. and around the globe might get the iPhone 4? It’s possible.
It took Verizon quite some time to land the iPhone and lost a good chunk of subscribers to AT&T over the years because of the Apple device. There were also rumors that the nation’s largest carrier would’ve been willing to pay even more to have the iPhone for itself and AT&T, t00. Not counting the bogus rumors we heard last year about Sprint getting the iPhone, it seems like it’s more of a possibility now.
Apple has been losing OS marketshare to Android, and that’s including the iPad and iPod touch – both of which use the iOS platform. Android numbers come primarily from smartphones, but given the breadth of handsets available and the number of carriers supporting it, it will handily eat up Apple’s share of the market. Breaking into a larger CDMA market is just what Apple needs to regain ground.
Sprint has announced that it has something up its sleeve relatively soon and calls the event or product an “industry first.” Could this mean a WiMax iPhone? Probably not, but it did cross our minds for a brief moment. However, an iPhone for the third-place carrier isn’t beyond the realm of possibility these days. And if that were to happen, I’m sure U.S. Cellular would love to have it, too.
I never thought there would be a CDMA iPhone given the global market size for GSM customers. The GSM iPhone made much more sense in pushing the smartphone worldwide. But now that a Verizon-compatible iPhone has been made, and the carrier says it’s not an exclusive deal, can the rest of the world’s CDMA carriers expect to ink deals with Apple, too?